php|architect Helps Katrina Victims

What can we say about Marco and his crew at php|architect except "you rock!" They have graciously agreed to donate all profits from the sale of their PHP Pocket Reference Book to the Canadian Red Cross' Katrina Relief Fund to assist those stricken by Hurricane Katrina. Marco blogs about how you can also help by putting a link on your site:: http://blogs.phparch.com/mt/?p=104, or else you can purchase one of these handy reference guides at http://www.phparch.com/rcrs. You guys are definitely one class act, and your generosity is greatly appreciated.

Netcraft Posts PHP Usage Stats

The numbers are out for September, and PHP is still kicking it. From the php.net site: PHP: 22,167,075 Domains, 1,283,102 IP Addresses
Source: Netcraft. To all the PHP developers and contributors, keep up the good work!

2 New PHP Security Books Coming Soon

Chris Shiflett announced the completion of his PHP security book, Essential PHP Security, published through O'Reilly (available at Amazon or through O'Reilly's site at http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/phpsec/index.html). Ilia Alshanetsky also announced the availability of the php|architect's PHP Guide to Security (available at Amazon or through php|architect at http://www.phparch.com/pgps).

Lukas Smith Blogs about the future of PEAR/PECL

In a very interesting blog entry, Lukas Smith talks about his opinions on PEAR and PECL. He discusses his thoughts on what's good and bad for both; where improvement could be made, and why they both have been so successful. He is also looking for your comments so if this is something you feel strongly about or would like to comment on, load 'em up at http://pooteeweet.org/blog/232.

PEAR/PECL Releases

I would be remiss in my duties if I didn't include what's new at PEAR and PECL. Recent PEAR releases include:

Image_Color 1.0.2 - Manage and handles color data and conversions.

Text_Wiki 1.0.1 - Abstracts parsing and rendering rules for any markup as Wiki or BBCode in structured plain text.